1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to knives. In particular, the present invention relates to an ergonomically-designed, multipurpose knife with a gut hook. The knife can be used for skinning and dressing game animals such as deer, and be readily converted for use as a hatchet, chopping blade, and other functions.
2. Discussion of Background
Perhaps the single most useful hand tool for many outdoor activities is a knife. Knives are used by hunters for field-dressing game animals, by fishermen for cleaning their catch, and by backpackers, campers and others for a wide variety of outdoor tasks requiring cutting. Although an immense variety of knife designs are available, the overall design of hunting knives has changed very little over the centuries. To this day, most hunters use knives that are essentially indistinguishable from the Bowie knives and other designs used in the past.
Animals harvested in the field must be dressed quickly to retard spoilage and preserve the meat or fish for later consumption. As a general rule, the faster the meat cools from normal body temperature to typical refrigerator temperature, the slower the rate of spoilage and the more palatable the meat. Conversely, the slower the meat cools, the faster the progression of spoilage that adversely affects the quality of the meat. Therefore, fishermen routinely pack their catch on ice to retard spoilage. Hunters skin and gut deer and other game animals in the field (so-called "field dressing"), or transport the carcasses to a butcher as soon as practicable.
In the process of dressing a game animal, the hunter must skin, gut and quarter the animal using a variety of techniques including cutting, piercing, slicing, sawing and chopping. No matter what the species of animal, its hide must be removed by skinning before the meat can be butchered (skinning also helps speed up cooling by exposing the meat to the atmosphere). Gutting or eviscerating involves removing all the viscera inside the abdomen and thorax of the animal. Ideally, the viscera are removed without puncturing the visceral linings, since puncturing releases the contents of the viscera into the abdominal cavity and quickly leads to contamination of the meat. Removing the viscera also prevents bacterial growth in the contents from spreading to the meat, and further helps cool the meat. The final operation is quartering, which involves severing the skeleton at various points to divide the carcass into smaller, more manageable sections. Quartering further speeds up cooling by exposing a greater surface area of meat to the atmosphere. Except for meat intended for cooking in camp, further butchering is usually deferred until after the meat is transported to a more convenient location (the hunter's home kitchen or a commercial butcher who is experienced in processing game).
Dressing game animals requires the mastery of a variety of cutting techniques and the use of cutting strokes of varying lengths, angles and directions. Cutting strokes may range from smooth, delicate strokes used for gutting and skinning, to forceful strokes used for quartering and butchering.
Many hunters use conventional straight-bladed knives for at least part of the dressing process. However, these knives are not configured for the types of cuts required, and require great skill to effectively dress an animal. Even the most skilled hunters frequently find it difficult to dress game expeditiously without damaging or spoiling the meat. Furthermore, conventional knives--even sportsmen's knives--have relatively long, thin blades which cannot easily cut through the bones and sinews of large game animals. When using a straight-bladed knife, it is difficult to cut through the hide without puncturing the viscera, which quickly renders the meat unpalatable. Skinning is very slow and tedious, since great care must be taken not to damage the meat while making the necessary long cuts in the hide.
More recently, knife designs adapted from the Alaskan "ulu" have become available. These types of knife include a "gut hook" or "skinning gut hook," a backwardly facing, sharpened slot on the back side of the knife blade. To cut through the animal's hide, the hunter first pierces the hide with the tip of the knife. Then, he inserts the hook through the layer to be cut and draws it toward his body so that the hide or meat is cut by the sharpened inner edges of the slot. This type of knife is disclosed by Seber, et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,359,778).
Other knives with gut hooks include a "T"-shaped handle having a curved blade (with an integrally-formed hook) extending from the leg of the "T" (Bloch, U.S. Pat. No. 5,033,987). When using the blade, the user grips the arms of the "T" with the leg between any two fingers. Frisbie (U.S. Pat. No. 3,187,354) shows a combination tool with a blade that curves slightly at both ends, with a gut hook at one end and a handle that is approximately centered on the blade. Ryan's multipurpose survival tool (U.S. Pat. No. 4,817,221) includes a curved blade with sawteeth at one end. The blade has four finger openings so that it can be gripped and used for cutting; alternatively, the blade can be secured to a handle for use as a hatchet. Curved openings at each end of the blade are used for skinning animals or opening cans. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,445,931, Knudson describes a knife with a "C"-shaped dressing tool attachment extending back over the knife blade. Capps (U.S. Pat. No. 3,241,236) discloses a game knife with an elongated blade which is curved at one end. The curved portion has a sharp projection used for making a starting cut in the hide, and a blunt tip which pushes the animal's inner organs away when cutting through the hide. Feller (U.S. Pat. No. 1,546,975) shows a fish splitting knife with a curved tip, and a rounded bead at the tip to prevent damage to the roe. Egbert (U.S. Pat. No. 4,198,751) shows a skinning knife with a straight cutting edge and an integral hook. A ball mounted at the tip of the hook allows the user to slice through the skin of an animal without cutting the underlying flesh.
Hooks are found in other tools, including Mansfield (U.S. Pat. No. 5,127,162), a hand-held cutting tool with an "O"-shaped handle with a slot for inserting a straight-bladed knife, and a piercing blade approximately parallel to the bottom wall of the handle; Coleman, (U.S. Pat. No. 4,062,117), a rescue tool with a "U"-shaped handle and a small, straight-edged cutting blade extending from one side of the handle; Lynn (U.S. Pat. No. 4,442,570), a shrimp preparation tool having a cup positioned on the curved edge of the blade for catching the legs of the shrimp being peeled.
Many different types of handles are available to assist the user in performing various types of cutting strokes. Frisbie (U.S. Pat. No. 3,187,354) shows a knife handle with a hole. The user simply inserts a stick into the hole to convert the knife to a hatchet. Barker, et al. provide an attachable brace to convert a knife to a cheese-knife (U.S. Pat. No. 230,393). Loomis (U.S. Pat. No. 5,113,587) and Cremonese (U.S. Pat. No. 3,890,707) describe knives with handles that partially extend over approximately straight blades that extend forwards of the handles.
Multiposition handles are also known. These include Oakley (U.S. Pat. No. 420,090), a meat knife with a slightly curved blade and a collapsible, two-position handle. In the first position, the handle is directly over the blade for use as a chopping knife; in the second position, the handle is in the normal position for use as a butcher knife. Both Hardy's hoe (U.S. Pat. No. 250,526) and Millspaugh's knife (U.S. Pat. No. 319,294) have handles that can be rotated by 90.degree. (Hardy, in a plane perpendicular to the plane of the hoe; Millspaugh, in the plane of the blade). Henson shows a pruning knife with a curved blade that can be fitted into the handle in six different positions (U.S. Pat. No. 870,678).
Most people who enjoy outdoor activities such as hunting, fishing, backpacking, etc. prefer to carry a few well-designed, versatile tools rather than a large assortment of specialty tools. However, versatility frequently entails compromises in the size, configuration and range of motion of a tool that may impact its effectiveness for any particular task. Presently-available knife-gut hook combinations are not designed with a view to the biomechanics of the human hand and arm. Typical knives of this type provide a limited range of motion, require an excessive amount of force for effective cutting, and, for many types of cuts, require the hunter's hand to held at an angle which prevents the efficient application of force.
There is a need for an ergonomically-designed knife which can be used by hunters and others to perform a variety of cutting operations (skinning, slicing, gutting, chopping, and so forth). Such a knife should be rugged and durable, simple and economical to manufacture, easy to use, and adaptable for a variety of uses without significant compromises in efficiency.